Santa Fe deputies to receive naloxone training

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) _ By the end of this week, all 80 Santa Fe County deputies will be trained in how to use naloxone and will carry the overdose remedy in their patrol cars.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports (http://bit.ly/1SfJV3j ) that it is the first law enforcement agency in New Mexico to train officers to administer naloxone, a powerful drug that can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.

The state Department of Health has been trying to expand the use of naloxone in the medical community for several years. And as of 2014, pharmacists can now prescribe and dispense to those patients or family members taking pain medicine.

Law enforcement has bene slower to embrace the drug, but Law Enforcement Training International president A.G. Sonny Leeper says that attitude is changing.